Navarre’s aircore drilling on the New Bendigo Line at the St Arnaud Goldfield is off to a rousing start after initial results returned high-grade gold hits.

Notable intercepts from the reconnaissance drilling program include 1m at 9.2 grams per tonne (g/) gold, 1m at 6.9g/t gold and 1m at 5.5g/t gold from 62m within a broader 20m intercept grading 1.8g/t gold from a depth of 33m.

The results from one of the three main trends at St Arnaud is highly encouraging as it underscores the potential for Navarre Minerals (ASX:NML) to discover economically significant gold mineralisation beneath the shallow historical workings.

St Arnaud produced 400,000oz of gold between 1855 and 1916.

Small wonder that the company is likely to expand the current drilling beyond the planned 5,000m program; 4,000m of drilling has been completed to date.

“It’s great to see strong gold results generated from our first reconnaissance drilling campaign on our recently granted exploration licence,” managing director Ian Holland said.

“We are currently drilling in the shadow of St Arnaud’s second largest historical mine, the New Bendigo Shaft and we are encouraged by the tenor and widths of the near-surface gold mineralisation intersected to date.

“St Arnaud is the second largest hard-rock goldfield in Victoria’s Stawell Geological Zone which, until now, has missed out on Victoria’s gold resurgence.”

navarre section new bendigo gold
Longsection of the New Bendigo Line showing Navarre and historical drilling results. Pic: Supplied

 

New Bendigo drilling and next steps

Results received to date from nine of 12 east-west traverse lines completed across the New Bendigo Line indicate that gold mineralisation is inclined steeply to the west and that there appears to be at least two sub-parallel mineralised surfaces up to 50m apart.

Additionally, the results and historical mining records suggest that there could be two higher grade gold shoots exhibiting a steep pitch towards the south.

Once drilling at New Bendigo is completed, the company will move on to drill the Nelson Line, which hosts the Lord Nelson Mine, which was St Arnaud’s largest gold producer with more than 300,000oz of gold production.

It will then complete a 2,000m diamond core program to follow-up on rich legacy drill intercepts beneath the New Bendigo Mine.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Navarre Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.